Few Americans believe their federal government should become engaged in "regime change" operations, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. Only 15 per cent of respondents believe the United States should try to change a dictatorship to a democracy where it can, down 12 points since April 2004. In his January 2005 inauguration speech, U.S. president George W. Bush said: "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." In October 2006, Bush justified his decision to launch the coalition effort in Iraq, declaring, "This country of ours must take threats seriously before they fully materialize. Saddam Hussein was a threat; the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.... http://www.angus-reid.com

A long-awaited reunion of three college friends turned tragic when a massive avalanche killed two of them during a backcountry skiing trip in the Colorado mountains, family members said.Alexis Michel Dodin, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Simon Martin Ozanne of Maplewood, New Jersey, were killed Tuesday afternoon when the category-5 avalanche — the most dangerous kind — crashed down on them about five miles (eight kilometers) southeast of Aspen, authorities said Wednesday. The Pitkin County coroner said both men suffocated after being buried by snow.Their friend Jason Luck, 33, from the Denver suburb of Aurora, survived and called for help....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258825,00.html

The US military has admitted for the first time that some of the violence in Iraq can be described as constituting a civil war.In a newly negative assessment of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report says that the period from October to December was the most violent three-month period since 2003.Attacks and casualties suffered by coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians were higher than any other similar time span, the report said.Members of the Bush administration have been loath to say that the US military is struggling to quell a civil war, and the report agreed that the term does not capture the complex situation there....http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/US-admits-Iraq-violence-is-civil-war/2007/03/15/1173722604881.html

Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a “remaining military as well as political mission” in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced but significant military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military. In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain in Iraq after taking office would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing. In outlining how she would handle Iraq as commander in chief, Mrs. Clinton articulated a more-nuanced position than the one she has provided at her campaign events, where she has backed the goal of “bringing the troops home.” She said in the interview that there were “remaining vital national security interests in Iraq” that would require a continuing deployment of American troops....http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/washington/14cnd-clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the Americans will withdraw support for his government — effectively ousting him — if parliament does not pass a draft oil law by the end of June, close associates of the Iraqi leader told The Associated Press on Tuesday.The legislature has not even taken up the draft measure for a fair distribution of the nation's oil wealth — only one of several U.S. benchmarks that are now seen by al-Maliki, a hardline Shiite, as key to continued American support for his troubled government.Beyond that, the al-Maliki associates told AP, American officials have informed the prime minister they want an Iraqi government in place by year's end that would be acceptable to Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt."They have said it must be secular and inclusive," one al-Maliki associate said....http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/13/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Oil.php

President Bush has spent the past six days in Central and South America pushing his view that what he calls free trade is the solution for millions who live in poverty south of our border.That was the idea behind the North American Free Trade Agreement. This president's father truly believed that NAFTA was only the beginning of a hemispheric free-trade area that would stretch from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. But it all went horribly wrong.Now almost a decade and a half later, the United States has lost a million jobs as a direct result of NAFTA, manufacturing wages in Mexico have declined, and illegal immigration to the United States, primarily from Mexico, now poses a national crisis for both nations. And instead of investing hundreds of billions of dollars in our hemisphere, corporate America has carried out the greatest transfer of wealth and knowledge to Communist China in the history of nations....http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/13/Dobbs.Mar14/index.html